Unmasqued
by ToLookForAmerica
Summary: Hannah always wanted to become a Bluecoat. This summer she will find more than just her drill spot. Based on DCI/Drum Corps International.
1. Chapter 1

"Ladies and gentlemen, under the direction of George Hopkins, The Cadets!" The crowd stood and gave a thunderous applause as the corps left the field. 15 year old me stood in the audience with my parents, cheering on my brother as he performed his heart out with The Cadets.

My brother, Josh, was a mellophone player for The Cadets. It was his second year with them, and at being only 18 he still had many years to go.

"Hurry! I want to get a picture with Josh before he changes out of uniform." My mother frantically sped down to the buses. My father ran to catch up with her.

On my way out to the buses I passed by the Bluecoats bus. I looked at the bus and couldn't help but feel jealous, the Bluecoats were my dream corps.

"Hannah!" My mothers screeching voice put my thoughts on pause. I looked over to see my mother, father, and brother all standing by the Cadets bus, motioning me to come over.

"Finally she makes it." Josh smiled at me.

"Josh!" I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a tight hug.

"Hey, don't mess up the uniform!" I looked down at his uniform, all white. This year's show was Angels and Demons, half the corps wore all white and the other half wore maroon. Josh was an angel.

"CADETS! Wrap it up, we're heading out in ten." I heard a tech yell.

"We better make this quick." My mom looked around. "Excuse me, would you mind taking a picture of us?" An innocent food truck lady that was wandering around agreed and took the camera.

"On three. One, two, three." The lady took the picture of us and left.

"I better get going. I'll miss you all! I promise to call when I can. I'll see you in Indy!" Josh gave us final hugs and left to board his bus.

The ride back was silent. I decided to break the silence by asking a question I already knew the answer to.

"Can I march drum corps?" I asked my parents. A few moments of silence passed before my dad spoke.

"Of course, The Cadets need a few good people next season." My dad responded.

"Oh sweetie, I'm so happy you're continuing the family tradition with The Cadets!" My mother said too excited.

The Cadets have been a huge part of my life. Just about everybody in my family marched. My grandfather, my parents, my brother. Everybody also marched a high brass instrument, either trumpet or mellophone. It was kind of a family tradition.

"I don't want to march The Cadets." I immediately regretted my words.

"Do you want to start off slow? We could start you on The Cadets2 and you can work your way up to the A corps from there." My mother said, clearly not getting what I was going for.

"No, like I want to march a different corps." I told them.

"What's wrong with The Cadets?" My dad sternly spoke.

"Nothing, just I want to march a different corps."

"No." My father told me.

"You haven't even heard who I want to march with, or on what instrument, or anything." I stared out the window.

"Okay, Hannah. Which corps do _you_ want to march?" My father asked me.

"The Bluecoats, on euphonium." There was a silent break. "I'll pay for the entire thing. Please, I just really want to do this." I told them.

"Fine." My dad finally said. "Just know, you're missing out by not marching The Cadets."

"Thank you guys so much!" I exclaimed. I was so excited.


	2. Chapter 2

_Flight 1088 Philadelphia to Akron now boarding. _

I collected my carry on bag and headed to the terminal to board my flight. As soon as I got to my seat I closed my eyes and fell asleep, knowing I would need as much energy as possible for my audition this weekend.

I waited for the shuttle to arrive to take me from the airport to the school where they were having auditions. After a few minutes a van with 'Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps' painted on the side drove by, I flagged them down. Once the van pulled up to me the driver came out to help me with my bags.

"Hannah Wagner?" I nodded my head. "Hi, I'm Sean. I'll be taking you to the Bluecoats camp. I'll take your bags, go ahead and find a seat. Introduce yourself."

I opening the side door and found 5 others already in the van. I grabbed the seat in the back, the only one left.

"Hey, welcome to our party!" One of the boys who was sitting in the front said.

"Hi, I'm Molly. Colorguard, Tulsa, Oklahoma." One of the girls introduced herself.

"Hannah, euphonium. Um, Allentown, Pennsylvania." I told everyone. One by one, they all introduced themselves. Finally Sean came back around and got into the drivers seat.

"Okay, looks like that's everyone. It'll be about a 30 minute drive there, so get cozy."

"So you're from Allentown? Why not go for The Cadets? They're closer and they'll give you the first place medals." The boy who was next to me, Ryan, asked.

"My parents and brother marched Cadets. I wanted a change, ya know?" He shook his head and looked out the window.

I did the same and took in the Ohio scenery that surrounded us. The next thing I knew we were pulling into a school.

"Okay, you guys are one of the first ones here. I suggest you go see if they still need any help setting up." Sean told us as we parked.

I grabbed my bags and headed inside with everyone else. Sean left for the airport to get more kids for camp.

I walked into the school, there was a sign that said 'Bluecoats Audition Camp 2011-2012'.

_I'm finally here. _I told myself. First the Bluecoats was a dream, then a goal, and now a reality. I was finally here.

I walked over to the registration table.

"Hi! You're a new face!" A girl at the table said to me. I looked at the corps necklace she was wearing, there were many pennies from around the world on it, she must've been with the Bluecoats for a while.

"Yeah, first time auditioning. I'm Hannah." I told her.

"Caroline. Nice to meet you. I'll fill out these forms for you and get you registered for camp!" She said over excited. "What are you auditioning for?"

"Hornline, euphonium."

"Glad to see another girl on low brass! There are so few out there. I'm a baritone." Caroline told me. "Do you need to borrow a horn?"

"Yeah, flying with an euphonium can be a pain."

"Follow me, we'll get you a horn." Caroline lead me one of the hallways in the school, where all the corps horns were. "We have 12 euphoniums on us right now, I can't guarantee that you'll get a horn the entire weekend. If more than 12 people need euphoniums you'll have to share. But you should be fine, most people go for baritone."

"How many euphoniums are you marching this season?" I asked.

"Depends, we marched 8 last year. Two years ago we marched 12. I heard that we're marching 8 this year though." She told me. "Trust me, if you can hold the horn for more than 15 minutes straight, you got the spot." She smiled at me.

Caroline wrote down a few numbers down on a piece of paper and handed me the case.

"Here you go! It's a corps horn, so make sure to wear gloves at all time. Also we expect it to be polished and cleaned when you return it. I recommend sitting down at breakfast on Sunday to clean it. That way you aren't in a rush to clean it after show and tell."

I took the euphonium case from her and set it down on the ground. "Thank you." I told her.

"No problem, go ahead and find a spot to stash yourself in the gym. I think the girls are actually going to be sleeping in the cafeteria, but just put your stuff in there for now. I need to go check for people in, just holler if you need anything else!" She walked back to the front of the school, leaving me alone.

I placed my euphonium and my bags in a corner of the gym. I decided now was a good time to call my parents, so I walked outside.

The late november Ohio air was chilly, but it wasn't too cold. It felt similar to back home in Allentown.

I pulled out my phone and dialed the home number.

"_Hello?" _ My mom's voice called out from the other end.

"Hi! Mom, it's me. I'm just calling to let you know I got to camp. I already got checked in and now we're waiting for everyone else to show up." I told her.

"_That's great honey! I'll put you on speaker so you can talk to your father." _

"_How's Bluecoat camp?_" My dad asked me through the phone.

"It's going good so far, I just got my euph."

"_I bet it's not as good as Cadet camp." _My dad gave me a hard time, half of him was joking, but the other half was hurt that I didn't want to join the corps he marched.

"Are you guys coming to show and tell?" I asked them. Silence overtook the phone. My brother had Cadets camp that same weekend. I knew they would much rather go to Cadet camp than Bluecoat camp.

"_Josh has camp this same weekend. It's his age out year and I wanted to make it special. Honey, we'll see."_ My mother said.

"But it's my rookie year! Shouldn't mine be just as special?" I asked them, harshly.

"_Cut out that attitude or else you're coming straight home." _My father sternly told me.

"Sorry, I have to go get ready. Bye, love you guys."

"_Bye." _They both said at the same time. I ended the call. I headed back inside to see that there were a lot more people. It was about 30 minutes until the camp officially started, but there was already a ton of people.

I walked into the gym and saw that someone was at the microphone about to talk.

"Hi, everyone. I know that not everybody is here yet but I just want to take the time for sections to get to know each other. So why don't we break into sections and do a few little ice breakers? Vets, take your sections to a quiet place in the school. Let's all meet back here at 7."

Once he was done talking I heard a bunch of vets calling out various instrument names. I walked around until I heard someone call out "euphonium".

"Euphoniums!" A vet was calling out, behind him were about 20 other people.

"Euphoniums?" I asked the group.

"As if you hadn't heard already." A boy said, I assumed he was a vet by his corps necklace.

A few more people joined our small little euphonium group.

"Alright, that seems like that's everyone. I'm Noah by the way, 4 year vet." He pulled out his corps necklace, many pennies were stacked on top of each other, all held on my a blue shoestring. We walked into the school's auditorium and sat on the stage.

We all sat in a circle, there was about 30 of us total. A majority of them were male. Probably 6 or 7 other girls.

"Okay, let's all go around and say our name, where we're from, how old we are, if it's how first time here, and one fun fact about us. I'll start. I'm Doug, from Houston, Texas, I'm 21, this will be my 4th and final year here. I have never broken a bone in my body." Doug looked to his right. The person to his right spoke.

"Hi, I'm Amanda. I'm 19. It's my first time auditioning here, but I marched Jersey Surf for two years. One fun fact about me… I actually play clarinet but I switched to euph for drum corps." The girl spoke.

"And where are you from?" Doug asked.

"Oh sorry, right outside of Washington, DC. In Maryland." Amanda finished.

We all sat and listened to each other's backgrounds. Finally it was my turn.

"I'm Hannah, from Allentown, Pennsylvania. I'm 16, it's my first year. Um, one fun fact. Hm… Nothing's really interesting about me…"

"Oh come on, something has to be interesting about you!" Michael, one of the vets said. He was 18, a one year vet from Chicago.

I shook my head no.

Michael looked like he was going to say something, then Doug cut him off.

"Sorry guys, it's 7. We should start heading back. Sorry for all of you who didn't get to share, I'm sure they'll be another time we can finish." Doug got up and started walking back to the gym, everybody followed suit.

"Hey, you never did say anything that was interesting about you." Michael approached me as we were walking.

"Oh, yeah." I said to him.

"Do you play any sports? Have any siblings? Travelled somewhere exotic?" He kept asking.

"I have an older brother, if that counts." I told him.

"Are you two close?"

"Hardly anymore. He's always gone all summer and goes to college in Texas. I never get to see him anymore."

"Gone all summer?"

"Yeah, he marches DCI."

"Which corps?"

"Cadets, on mello."

"So drum corps runs in the family?" Michael asked me.

"Yeah, my dad marched, my grandfather marched. Hopefully I'll march. It's funny though, I "broke the family tradition" by coming here. My whole family has marched The Cadets." I laughed at the end of my phrase.

Michael chuckled. "Hopefully no bad luck comes to you." Michael was cut off by a loud voice over the speakers in the gym.

"Bluecoats! Gather around! Find a space on the floor and sit." A man who I assumed was the corps director said.

"Come sit with me, I'll introduce you to some of my buddies." Michael offered. We walked over to where a bunch of vets were. "Hey guys, this is Hannah. She's new." Everyone in the group gave a "hi" or a "hello".

Michael and I sat down with his group of friends. The corps director stood in the front of the gym with many other older adults, they all looked important.

"Hello, auditionees! My name is Chad Brown and I'm the Corps Director here at the Bluecoats. I just wanted to thank you all for coming out here to beautiful Canton, Ohio. I know you all have been practicing and waiting for this weekend. There are a few logistics we need to take care of before we get started. Girls will be sleeping in the cafeteria while the guys will be in right here in the gym. We will be using the school's locker rooms for showering. We have a nurse on staff with us so if you ever have an emergency please go to her. If you still need to borrow a flag, horn, drum, whatever, you should talk to your caption head about that. I'll introduce the caption heads then off to sectionals."

Chad went down and introduced all of the caption heads and techs. I didn't really pay attention all that much, I was just taking it all in. _I was finally here. _

"Okay Bluecoats! We will be having sectionals until 10, then snack, then bed time. Percussion in the cafeteria, guard in the gym, and brass in the auditorium. Go!" Chad said.

Everyone stood up and started walking to where their section was.

"I guess back to where we just were." Michael said to me as we all walked back to the auditorium. Out of his original friend group only two others were in the hornline.

One of Michael's friends walked next to me. "I'm Jim, I'm on trumpet. And that's Chris back there. He's a mello. You're a baritone?" Jim asked me.

"Euphonium. But close enough." I told him.

Once in the auditorium we all sat down on the stage once again. The caption head and several other techs towered over us.

"Hey guys, I'm Sean. I drove some of you here from the airport. I'm the brass caption head." Sean introduced us to a few of the other techs with him, all I paid attention to was Patrick, the baritone/euphonium tech.

Sean covered some basics, such as expectations and other horn basics. "Everybody grab your horn and set it up in sectionals. High brass stay here, low brass go in the aux gym."

"Oh, crap. I forgot to check out a horn when I got here. I need to go do that. Hannah I'll see you in the aux gym." Michael walked off to Sean to get a horn.

I walked back to the gym to get my horn and gloves. Then I walked to the aux gym to meet up with the rest of the low brass. There were about 80 of us total. 30 baritones, 30 euphoniums, and about 20 tubas.

"Lets set up an arc, baritones on the left, euphs on the right, and contras in the middle. Let's have vets on the ends." Patrick told us, we all scurried to make an arc. I stood with the rest of the rookies near the center of the arc.

"Let's start out with a nice round, smooth, B flat. Just hold it until I cut you off." Patrick counted off and we all played our B flats.

About halfway through playing the door opened and Michael ran in with a euphonium in his arms. He made eye contact with me and smiled, then he stood on the end with the rest of the vets.

Patrick finally cut us off, which was a good thing since my arms were starting to get tired from holding the euphonium up. I only had a baritone to practice on back home, holding a euphonium adds another few pounds.

"I wanted to wait until tomorrow to look at music, I just want to spend tonight doing long tones and scales." Patrick told us.

After a very long 2 hours we finally ended. My arms were about dead after we finished.

"Great sectional today guys, I hope we can improve even more tomorrow! Head on off to snack, meet a few more people." Patrick told us as he dismissed us from sectionals.

I walked back to the gym to put my euphonium back in it's case. Michael caught up with me.

"How was it? Your first experience as a Bluecoat!" Michael said to me.

"My arms hurt and I want to go to sleep." I told him.

Michael laughed. "Seems about right. Here let me take that for you." He grabbed my euphonium and carried it for me. I felt so relieved.

"Feels much better, thanks."

After we put our horns away we headed to snack. They set up snack in one of the school's main hallways. Snack today was pizza and various cookies, juices, and fruits.

Michael and I stood in line to get our snack. It seemed odd to be eating this much so late at night, but after a long sectional I didn't decline food.

Once we finally reached the food table I grabbed a slice of cheese pizza, an orange, and some Kool Aid.

Michael only grabbed a slice of pizza and some juice. We both walked over to the same group of friends we sat with earlier and sat down.

"Hey." Michael said to them as we sat down.

"How are my euph buds?" Jim asked us.

"Female euphonium? Those are about as rare as female snares." Another boy said, he had a tank top on and a backwards baseball camp. He screamed snare drummer.

"I'm Chase. Snare. You're Hannah, right?" I nodded my head.

For the rest of snack our little group shared stories, jokes, and secrets. For the short amount of time I've been with them I've already developed a pretty strong bond with them. I hardly noticed that I was the only one without a corps necklace, and that I was the only girl in our group.

"It's 11. Lights out is at 12. We better hit the showers and get ready for beddy time." Chase told us, looking at his watch.

"It's been fun meeting you Hannah. See you at breakfast tomorrow?" Jim told us as he started to walk off. The rest of the group followed him and walked to get ready for bed. Except Michael.

"Today was a long day. Rest up for tomorrow. I'll see you at breakfast." Michael smiled at me as he ran to catch up with his friends. I smiled at him as he walked off. It was weird to think that 4 hours ago I knew nobody, and now I have a group of friends.

I got my stuff then walked to the cafeteria to claim a spot.

"Hi, do you mind if I set up my air mattress here?" I asked a girl who already had hers blown up. She looked like another rookie about my age.

"Sure! I'm Megan. I'm auditioning for colorguard." She cheerfully told me.

"I'm Hannah, euphonium."

"I was just about to head down to the showers, if you want to come. At least we won't be alone." Megan asked me.

"Sure, let me grab my shower stuff." I told her.

We walked down to the showers, I couldn't get over the fact that I would be showing with a bunch of other people.

"I'm nervous about showering too, I guess we better get used to it if we want to be a Bluecoat." Megan told me as we walked into the locker rooms.


	3. Chapter 3

The water was extremely hot and came out with a ton of pressure. Everybody took their showers as quick as possible then got out of the hot water.

After the first few minutes showering together with a group of people isn't so bad. We all talked about our days and where we are from while in the shower. It was more of a social thing than anything.

Once we changed into our pajamas and brushed our teeth Megan and I walked back to the cafeteria to get ready for bed.

As soon as we both laid down on our beds the lights were turned out.

"Wake up time is at 7. Sleep tight ladies." A colorguard tech told us as she turned out the lights.

As soon as I closed my eyes I felt myself drift to sleep.

"Good morning Bluecoats." The same colorguard tech called out as we slowly woke up. "Breakfast is in 30 minutes."

Everybody slowly started to get up. Megan decided to take another morning shower, I didn't feel like waiting around for her so I walked to breakfast alone.

Breakfast was being served in the same place as snack. Today's breakfast consisted of cereal, orange juice, and fruit. I looked around to see if Michael was already in line, he wasn't so I decided to just hop in line.

I was about half way up in the line when Michael joined the line. I got out of line and joined him.

"Good morning." I told him as I walked over to him.

"Morning. Sleep well?" He asked.

"I was so tired after sectionals I slept like a dead person." I laughed.

Michael chuckled. "Today are the individual auditions, are you ready?" He asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be I guess. Do you know how many spots are open?" I asked him curiously.

"There was a huge age out class last year. And a ton of people left to join more elite corps. In the euphs I think we are marching 12 this year. There are about 8 vets that returned. So about 4 spots up for grabs." Michael told me.

"Do vets always get contracts?" I asked him.

"Most of the time, yeah. Don't worry. You have a good shot at getting it." Michael said.

"There are 22 rookies to get 4 spots! There's no way."

"Just believe in yourself. You might be surprised."

We got to the front of the line and grabbed our food. I only grabbed cereal and juice. Michael grabbed a plate full of fruit, I looked at him oddly.

"What? I don't like cereal. I'm also lactose intolerant." Michael told me as we found a spot to sit against a wall.

"Where is everyone?" I looked around and didn't see any of Michael's friends.

"Probably still sleeping." Michael told me as he started peeling an orange. "Let's get to know each other a little better. How about I ask a question, then you ask one, then we repeat?"

"Sure. You start." I told him as I took a bite of my cereal.

"What's your full name?" He asked.

"Hannah Grace Wagner." I told him. "What's yours?"

"Michael Christopher Archer." He told me with a confident smile.

"Do you speak any other languages?" I asked.

"Nope." He told me.

"Me neither." I said.

"March any other corps?" Michael asked.

"Nope."

"I marched a DCA corps before coming here. It's my second year with the 'Coats." He replied.

"Are you still in high school or college?" I asked. I honestly didn't know.

"College, I go to Ohio State actually. Music ed. major." He told me.

"I'm only a junior in high school…" I told him.

"We're only two years apart if you think about it. When's your birthday?" He asked.

"March 17. St. Patrick's Day." I told him.

"You must be lucky then. Mine's July 25." He told me.

We were nearing the end of our breakfast.

"Is there a way I can practice my audition materials before we get started?" I asked Michael.

"Yeah, PT starts at 9. We have about 45 minutes until then. I bet we can find an empty stairwell or something for you to practice." He told me.

"Yeah, that works. Let me just finish my cereal." I told him. Just as I finished Michael's friend group came up over with their breakfast.

"Hey guys." Jim said as the group walked over to sit down next to us.

"Hannah and I were actually going to practice our audition music before we get started." Michael said as he got up.

"Sorry, I hope we can talk during lunch." I told them as I got up.

Michael and I walked to the trashcan to throw away our trash. Then we went to go get our horns.

After we got our horns and our music we walked around the school to find a stairwell or empty classroom we could practice in.

After walking all around the school we managed to find an empty classroom. We turned on the lights and closed the door. I sat my music down on a desk.

"I have an idea, what if we had mock auditions? I'll listen to you play and give you feedback, then you listen to me and give me feedback? He offered.

"Yeah that sounds good. I'll start." I said. Michael nodded his head and sat down in a desk. I got my music on the desk and held my horn up to play. Honestly, I've been practicing so much that I had the music memorized.

I took a deep breath then started playing the exercises and excerpts from the book. I tried to play with the best tone I could, but it still didn't seem like it was enough.

I finished my first excerpt.

"Stop." Michael cut me off. "Try holding your horn a bit higher, and have a bigger arch with your hands." He came over and pushed my elbows up and moved my hands in a bigger arch. His hands were soft and comforting. A complete contrast to this stressful camp.

"Try that." He said. I played the rest of my excerpts. I had to admit, I sounded a lot better after he helped me.

"How was that?" I asked.

"Not too bad. Just make sure to really bring out the dynamics and accents. Your tone is really nice." He smiled at me.

"I wanna hear you play now." I requested.

"Okay." Michael quickly emptied his spit valve and took in a breath. He played the music almost perfectly. I didn't want him to stop, it sounded so full.

"How was that?" He asked. I hadn't even noticed he stopped playing. I was completely out of it when he played.

"Beautiful." I commented. I looked at the clock in the room, it was 8:50. We had to start heading back. "We better head back."

We walked back and put our horns back. Everyone was gathered in the gym.

"Okay Bluecoats!" The corps director spoke as Michael and I sat down. "We're going to start some PT in sections. Go back to where you had your sectionals last night and get to some nice morning PT."

Michael and I walked back to the aux gym where we were last night for sectionals.

"Bring it in" Patrick said, we all stood around him.

"We're going to head outside for some running. As we start running I want everyone to find a partner or two. It's always easier to run in pairs. We're going for a 10 minute jog. Remember this is a jog. Don't go too fast. After the 10 minutes we'll do breathing gym, then finish with static stretching. Let's head out." Patrick announced to us. The entire hornline made their way outside.

"Follow me." Patrick said as he started running.

We all started running, I decided to run with Michael since he was really the only person I knew well.

The vets ran in the front, while the rookies took the back. Some people were very out of shape and started walking. Michael and I managed to stay in the middle-front of the herd.

"Is this pace too fast?" Michael asked me.

"No, I was on cross country in middle school. I'm used to running. We could even go a little bit faster if you want." I told him.

"Doesn't matter to me." He said, even though I could tell he was getting tired. I decided to pick up the pace just a little. I was barely breaking a sweat and I could see Michael was struggling to catch his breath. But he kept up with me.

After 10 minutes of jogging Patrick stopped in the middle of a field.

"Inhale and exhale with my hand." Patrick said. He lifted his hand and we all inhaled, when we lowered his hand we exhaled. "Now we're going to breath in for four, out for four. In, two, three, four, out, two, three four."

We continued this for about 5 minutes.

"Each camp we'll add something new to breathing gym. Now time for static stretching. Sit." We all sat down.

For the rest of the PT block we did various stretches. Once PT block was over we headed back to the aux gym.

"Individual audition time!" Patrick said cheery. Everybody grab your horn and we'll start warming up.

We all set up a similar horn arc as we did last night. We played various long tones and scales. I was almost shaking, I wasn't ready for my auditions.

"We're going to start the individual auditions now. You're only going to be auditioning on your playing today, not your marching yet. The caption head, Sean, is going to be hearing the auditions. While auditions are going on I'll be working with the rest of the hornline."

Sean came into the room with a clipboard. "Are you ready to get started?" He asked Patrick. Patrick nodded his head.

"Okay, I'll start off with the first auditionee. Michael Archer?" Michael quickly smiled at me then walked with Sean to the audition room.

I hated being last, I would much rather get it over with than wait around. While auditions were going on Patrick worked with the rest of the low brass on tone, intonation, and blending. We had yet to start on any marching, which seemed a bit odd since this is a drum corps.

After about 5 minutes Michael came back into the gym. He have me a thumbs up and walked back to his spot in the arc.

After what seemed like forever, my name was called.

"Hannah Wagner." Sean said, looking down at his clipboard. I nervously walked up to him.

Sean lead me into a classroom down the hall from the gym. There was a stand in the front of the room with a binder with the music in it. It had all the excerpts we were supposed to play in it.

"You can play a few notes before we get started." Sean told me. I played up the B flat scale, making sure to use a lot of air to support my sound. "Ready?" Sean asked when I stopped playing.

"Yep." Was all I said, I was almost shaking from my nerves.

"If you don't mind, play the two prepared excerpts in the binder." Sean said.

I opened the binder and found the two excerpts we were supposed to prepare, one was lyrical and the other was technical.

I played the lyrical one first, I tried to play the notes with a full sound and payed attention to the dynamics, I was about halfway through when Sean cut me off.

"That's enough. Go onto the technical piece." Sean demanded. I turned the page and went to the other excerpt.

The technical piece was full of sixteenth notes and chromatic fingerings. A few times my notes cracked. I was only a few bars in when Sean once again cut me off.

"That's all. Thank you." Sean told me as he wrote on this clipboard.

"Thank you." I said as I walked out of the room. I didn't know why he kept cutting me off, I assumed it was bad. _There goes my chance of marching. _I kept telling myself as I walked back to the gym with the rest of the low brass.

I was the last auditionee for the low brass. When I walked in Patrick saw me and called everyone over to him. I walked to join the group.

"Good job this morning. I'm sure all your auditions went well. Again, don't worry. That audition is not going to make your break your chances. You still have all weekend to redeem yourself. Go to have lunch, meet back here at 1:30. After lunch we start marching. Go ahead and put your horns in stacks. I recommend putting your gloves on top your horn so you know which is yours. Ready, break." Patrick said as we all walked out of the gym for lunch.

I walked over to Michael. We both put our horns down.

"So… How'd it go?" Michael asked as we walked to the hallway for lunch.

"Bad, he kept cutting me off. I wasn't even halfway done with either excerpt and he cut me off.

"Bad? That's good! That means he has already heard enough. That means you really impressed him within your first few bars of music. Hannah, that's a good sign. Don't fret over it." Michael tried to tell me as we walked to the food line.

Today's lunch consisted of hot dogs, salad, and potato salad. There was also the usual PB&J.

I took a hot dog and salad. I wasn't in the mood for potatoes. Michael on the other hand took a hot dog bun and put mustard in it. No hotdog, just bread and mustard. He also took salad and potatoes.

"No hotdog?" I asked him as we walked to find a place to sit.

"I'm not a big hotdog person. Besides, mustard and bread is good. Have you ever tried it?" He said.

"No, but I love mustard." Looking down at my hotdog was was smothered in mustard.

"Don't knock it 'till you try it." Michael told me as we sat down in our usual spot against the wall.

A few moments after we sat down Michael's friends came over, Jim and Chase. No Chris.

"Where's Chris?" Michael asked. Chris was the mellophone player.

"He started throwing up, he ended up going home." Jim said as he sat down.

"Poor guy. I hope he feels better." I said.

"You like mustard?" Chase asked as he looked at my hotdog.

"Yeah, it's my favorite. Mustard has such a good taste and only a few calories." I said, taking a bite of my hotdog.

"You shouldn't worry about calories, I think you're just fine." Michael told me. I didn't know what to say to that.

Chase gave Michael a strange look. "So Hannah, how old are you again?" Chase asked, breaking the awkward tension.

"16. My birthday's in March though." I told Chase.

"No way, mine too! March 16." Chase said.

"March 17. Pretty close." I told him.

"Almost twins! We'll if you weren't born three years after me. I'm 19. Sophomore at North Texas for music ed." Chase said.

"It seems like everyone here is going for music ed." I gave a small laugh.

"I'm a junior at Ole Miss for English. I want to be an editor for a publishing company." Jim said.

"16 though, isn't that a little young?" Chase asked.

"My brother started when he was this age, so did my dad. Plus it doesn't hurt just to show up to auditions." I told him.

"Does your brother still march?" Chase asked.

"Yeah, it's his age out year with The Cadets. He'll be a six year vet when he ages out." I told him.

"What does he play?" Chase asked again.

"Mello." I said.

"No way! My girlfriend is on the mello line. Maybe they know each other." Chase said.

"I can ask." I told him.

"So do you know George Hopkins personally? Being from Allentown and having family marched The Cadets?" Jim asked. George Hopkins was a pretty big deal in DCI. He was like a celebrity. Although most people made memes out of him and took silly pictures with him.

"I've seen him at all those dumb Cadet banquets and alumni dinners. But that's it. Why?" I asked.

"Nothing, just curious." Jim said.

Michael as yet to say anything since the whole mustard comment. He just silently sat there eating his mustard bread and salad.


	4. Chapter 4

The entire rest of lunch Michael didn't say anything, he didn't speak unless he was spoken to. After lunch ended I walked in silence with Michael as we walked back to the gym for visual block.

"Is everything alright, Michael?" I asked him as we picked up our horns.

"Yeah, just tired." He said.

"Okay guys, lets all set up a block. Try to be in sections. Baritones in the front, euphs in the back." Patrick told us as we entered the gym. Everybody made a block and stood there waiting for instructions. Michael made his way to the front with the vets, and I was once again left in the back with the other rookies.

"First let's start off with how to hold the horn." Patrick went over how to hold the horn at standby, attention, and when playing. "Remember that we always hold our horns 5 degrees above parallel when playing." Patrick said as we all stood with out horns up in playing position. My arms we starting to give out after only a few minutes.

I bit my lip as I tried to stay up. "Relax. Tension is your worst enemy here." Patrick said as he put a hand on my shoulder. I eased up a little.

Patrick walked around the block and tried to give a comment to everyone. After what seemed like forever we were allowed to put out horns down.

"Get used to holding your horn up for a long period of time. By spring training I want everyone to be able to hold their horn for at least 10 minutes straight." Patrick said as he made his way to the front of the block.

"This year the Bluecoats will be starting something different. We will be marching toe first. It's going to be more like a tondue." Patrick demonstrated the marching technique to everybody. "We're going to take eight steps forward, then close. Horns up for this."

"One, two, three, push and step." We all stepped off with the left foot. Toe down, rolling to the heel. Everyone struggled with the new marching technique, even the vets. Once we made eight steps we all closed.

"Not bad, everyone. Good first try. Now let's try again." Patrick said as he once again counted us off. I tried to impress everyone with my marching, but I knew I was messing up.

"Good." Patrick said to me as he walked past me. I was the only positive comment he made, everyone else had been negative.

We continued the marching block for a few more hours. We just did basics and worked on our horn angles. After visual block we had a 10 minute break then off to music with the entire low brass section.

I wandered over to where my water jug was and took gulps from it. Marching was tiring.

"Don't take gulps, try taking small sips. Taking huge gulps doesn't get you hydrated any better." Patrick told me as he took sips of his iced coffee from Starbucks.

I took his advice and took sips of my water, I honestly couldn't tell a difference.

"You looked good out there. Probably the best of the rookies, even better than some vets. What's your marching background?" Patrick asked me.

"Just high school, so far." I told him modestly.

"_So far." _Patrick winked. "I was in your shoes once too. I came in here when I was 17, I only had a parade marching band background. I made it my first year. Ended up as a 4 year age out last year. You have all the skills, now just have the confidence." Patrick said as he walked off to talk with other auditionees, iced coffee in hand.

I didn't see Michael around, I assumed he went to the bathroom or something. I just stood there with my water jug over listening on other people's conversations.

"Aight guys. Arc it up. Baris on the left, contras in the middle, euphs on the right." Patrick shouted out as the contras started coming into the gym.

"But this time, let's alternate the arc. Let's alternate rookies and vets. So vet, rookie, vet, rookie, and so on." Patrick said as he walked through the arc.

The rookies and vets tried to alternate the best they could, but we had more rookies than vets.

There wasn't any more spots for another rookie, the line was already perfect. I was the odd one out.

"Wagner." Patrick came up to me. "Let's find you a spot."

"They're all filled…" I told him, shrugging my shoulders.

"Nonsense, you'll stand here next to Archer." Patrick pointed to the spot next to Michael. It was on the end.

"The spots on the end, do you really want a rookie on the end?" I questioned Patrick.

"Confidence, Hannah. Remember to have confidence." Patrick said as he walked off.

I was on the end of the arc, a space reserved for the lead player.

"Hi." I said to Michael as we awkwardly stood there in standby.

"Hey. Can I talk to you after?" Michael told me.

"Yeah." I said, biting my lip.

"Okay, guys. I'm Matt, the contra tech if you didn't know. I'm mainly here to give the contras advice, but I also may give some of you guys advice. Just be open." Matt said, he was a little heavy set, but still strong. He looked about 35, significantly older than Patrick who was in his early 20s.

"Let's just play up a Bb scale, half notes." Matt said, he started to conduct.

Michael played strong and confident, I was hesitant on my playing. I started playing half a count after everyone else, just to make sure I wouldn't mess up. As Patrick walked around the arc I was hoping he would say anything.

Coming down the scale Michael stopped playing to empty a spit valve. When he stopped playing it was obvious that I wasn't playing.

Patrick walked up to me. "Hannah, confidence." He spoke in my ear. I was terrified, I was just a rookie, just a 16 year old.

I played a little louder just to please Patrick, when he walked away I went back to my hesitant playing.

We held the last note of the scale as a fermata.

Patrick walked up and stood next to matt.

"As a member of the Bluecoats you must be a performer. You must be confident in everything you do. I want you all to treat this like a performance. In fact, treat everything like a performance." Patrick lectured to all of us, I knew it was geared towards me.

After the low brass block we had dinner. Michael joined me in line.

"Hey." I said as he walked up.

"Hey." Michael replied.

"One more day left." I said awkwardly.

"They're giving out contracts this camp, I heard." Michael told me.

"How does that work? Do they just hand you one?" I asked.

"Nah. They hand everyone an envelope Sunday afternoon after the parent show and tell. It will either have a contract in it or a letter thanking you for auditioning." Michael said.

"Oh." I said.

"Yeah, don't worry. I'm sure you'll do fine." Michael said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

I smiled back at him, I finally broke eye contact with him when I picked up a plate from the food line.

"Here, I think a grabbed two.." I separated my plates and gave Michael one.

"Thanks."

Dinner was pork sandwiches and french fries. We both grabbed food and sat in our usual spot.

"How does it feel to be almost done?" Michael asked as we ate.

"It was fun, but I think I'm ready to go home. I'm excited about tomorrow's results though." I said.

"Don't stress." Michael said.

"Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the show-and-tell of the Bluecoats! We have been working very hard this past weekend-" I zoned out. Here I was in front of a crowd with my dream corps. I couldn't believe it.

We played a few pieces that we worked on during the camp, including Creep and the Boxer. They weren't perfect but they were still just as powerful.

I scanned the audience to see if my parents showed up. I didn't see them at all. I wasn't disappointed since I knew they wouldn't show up. My brother had Cadets camp the same weekend, he was first priority because he was a Cadet.

After the parent show I headed back to the gym to collect my stuff. Michael and many others visited with their parents.

"Wagner." Patrick came up to me. He handed me an envelope. "My parents never came to these either. They weren't really supportive of the whole DCI thing. Don't worry." Patrick gave me a smile. "Hannah, whatever is in that envelope just know that I saw you grow this weekend. You still have a lot of improvement, though. But neverless, I'm proud of you."

"Thanks." I replied.

"Safe travels home, I gotta deliver the rest of these." Patrick held up the stack of envelopes in his hand and walked off.

I opened the envelope with shaky hands. I was terrified of being rejected.

_Congradulations! You have been offered a spot in the 2012 Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps. In this envelope you will find your membership contract and other important materials. _


End file.
